Gen Alpha is the first generation in history to be born in the post-modern, digital world. Their world will be heavily impacted by AI, AR, VR, and other emerging technologies. The jobs that they work in will be impacted by AI. That’s a given. It’s also a given that they will be much different than the posts that are currently listed on Monster.com, Indeed, and other job boards. So, let’s get adventurous and explore exactly what positions the oldest Gen Alpha members could be applying for in 10 years.
Are They Taking the Easy Way Out?
Some recently published surveys may suggest that Gen Alpha wants a ‘lazy girl job,’ or a cushy, low-pressure, and well-paying job that’s fun and doesn’t require lots of work. Many older Gen Alphaers have watched social and other influencers become Richy Rich, doing little work, and want the same for themselves. That’s why they want to make it big on YouTube or TikTok.
Their Positions Will Be Revolutionary
That may not be surprising, given two realities of digital era jobs. The first is that AI is taking over many entry-level positions that young college and even high school graduates used to do. The second is that many of the jobs of the future haven’t even been thought of yet. The World Economic Forum published a report about nine years ago that mirrored the same sentiment.
Titled The Future of Jobs and Skills Report, it predicted that about 65% or almost ⅔ of the jobs that Gen Alpha would work in didn’t even exist at the time. That may be a given and a necessity because the world is going digital rapidly and is being impacted by AI at a much faster rate. Indeed, AI is already taking over more repetitive, menial, and mundane tasks as it advances.
That may be a boon for the Gen Alpha cohort since the preceeding generation, Gen Z, hates ‘busy work.’ Gen Zers are notorious for leaving jobs with repetitive and simple tasks (because they perceive these to be boring, degrading, and even insulting) for more meaningful and challenging jobs at the first opportunity. Gen Alpha is likely to take that practice to an extreme.
What Types of Jobs Will Gen Alphaers Fill?
Gen Alpha members may well be algorithmic ethical architects. If you are wondering what that is and what the responsibilities are because you have never heard of those job titles before, it’s because that job doesn’t exist right now. But it will likely emerge as AI integrates deeper into global societies and becomes more prevalent.
AI is amazing and can do repetitive tasks well. That may save companies billions and help them earn record profits. But AI is not perfect. It can and does do unethical things. Some even fear that AI may have a mind of its own because it can sometimes glitch. I’ll give you an example of this. An AI model earlier this year refused to shut down when prompted to. Instead, it threatened to mine the employee’s emails and publicize his affair.
Algorithmic Ethical Architects
Algorithmic ethical architects will have their plate full. Many of their possible future tasks include: auditing AI tools and their output/content for various types of biases and turning moral values into technical protocols so that they align with global moral and social values, among others. Interestingly enough, companies in many industries: healthcare, law enforcement, and public policy, may start to create this job title and responsibilities.
These professionals will need a strong technical background since they’ll manage advanced and sophisticated technologies. Algorithmic ethical architects may be different from today’s emerging ethics consultants because they will be modifying and designing complex and innovative AI systems and tools.
Synthetic Data Designers
Governments worldwide are passing stricter regulations regarding online privacy and how companies can use online sensitive data. That may be necessary seeing how erratic and unpredictable AI can be. You may never heard of a synthetic data designer because the job doesn’t exist now. However, fresh Gen Alpha grads may well create artificial data points and sets with statistical models to train AI tools while adhering to stringent laws, regulations, and rules.
Many professionals and regulators understand that AI doesn’t understand ethics and morals like humans do. They have also seen the damage that has been done when humans trained AI using real human data. The result was low-quality AI content that was repetitive, uniform, and boring. This type of content has a name: “AI slop!”
What was worse was that this AI slop was often wrong since all AI tools hallucinate, or make up facts and data, all of the time. Professionals and regulators are afraid that training AI tools on AI slop will just lead to even more of this content being created since there is only so much quality human-generated content online. They feel that it may be possible end “AI slop” by training AI tools on quality synthetic data.
Digital Ecosystem Mediators
AI tools are going to proliferate in the future, seeing as to just how vigorously companies and investors are investing in it. The AI revolution may be turning into a bubble that will pop soon, with temporary and disasterous outcomes. But, AI is here to stay. Those Gen Alphaers who learn how to use it properly may succeed as digital ecosystem mediators.
Digital ecosystem mediators will manage multiple AI tools that run simultaneously to ensure that they work harmoniously and seamlessly. They will have their hands full with translating, harmonizing, and facilitating AI tools and algorithms to ensure that they work together to create meaningful and valuable content and output.
AI-Creative Hybrids
Gen Alphaers are so technologically literate that it makes sense that some of them will program systems using voice or AR/ VR wearables. But AI-creative hybrid roles will extend to every part of the digital economy and post-modern global society. For example, many Gen Alphaers may work in jobs focusing around sustanability as concern over the state and welfare of Mother Earth grows.
They may work in digital health or extended reality roles as well. That’s why you may see innovative job titles like robotics AI engineer, robotics swarm engineer, energy-efficient AI planners, and quantum AI-infrastructure planners on social media platforms and job boards a decade from now.
Longevity Lifestyle Coaches
The integration of AI into medicine coupled with advances in modern medicine means that people are living longer. I expect to see many more centenarians globally a decade from now. As both advance, and as AI gets better, expect to see the emergence of wellness coaches who combine advanced biotechnologies with the latest AI tools.
Longevity lifestyle coaches will populate advanced predictive models with client data to formulate lifestyle plans that help people live longer and healthier lives. They will be much better educated than current lifestyle coaches because they will need to be experts in medicine, data science, and practical life. Expect these professionals to cultivate a clientele from the loyal followings that they build through social media marketing.
Is Gen Alpha Creating New Philosophies?
Traditional job searching doesn’t work anymore. Just ask the many laid off people or job seekers who complain that they send out hundreds of resumes and applications for a handful of interviews. So, Gen Alpha may learn to be creative when it comes to job searching. People already send potential employers video interviews. But Alpahers may take that one step further with YouTube tutorials, Discord bots, and community apps. Only those Alphaers who can impress employers with their digital portfolios will be selected.
The New Roles Will Require a New Skill Set and Outlook
Some more new roles that Gen Alphaers may well work in are:
- Prompt Architect
- Synthetic Personality Stylist
- AI Bias Auditor
- Virtual Companion Developer
- Digital/Archive Resurrection Specialist
- Civic Trust Engineer
- Urban Sentience Designer
- NeuroLens Interface Specialist
People who work in these roles will be interacting heavily with AI. They may train the machines on specialized and accurate sub-sets of data. They will manage AI tools and robots like managers work with human employees today, but with different managerial styles. Alpahers will need to understand how these AI tools work. That comes from some exposure to these tools early on and on the job.
Note that entrepreneurship, a trend that is taking off with Gen Zers, may accelerate with Gen Alpha as more and more members find that traditional roles are hard to come by.
The Jobs of Tomorrow Are Different
Yes, you could say that the jobs of tomorrow are different since they will be heavily oriented towards advanced and innovative technologies Gen Alpha workerse will need lots of education, as well as critical thinking and analytical skills, and a good dose of creativity to man the tools that drive them.
